FREE(1) User Commands FREE(1)
NAME
free - Display amount of free and used memory in the system
SYNOPSIS
free [options]
DESCRIPTION
free displays the total amount of free and used physical and swap memory
in the system, as well as the buffers used by the kernel. The shared
memory column should be ignored; it is obsolete.
OPTIONS
-b, --bytes
Display the amount of memory in bytes.
-k, --kilo
Display the amount of memory in kilobytes. This is the default.
-m, --mega
Display the amount of memory in megabytes.
-g, --giga
Display the amount of memory in gigabytes.
--tera Display the amount of memory in terabytes.
-h, --human
Show all output fields automatically scaled to shortest three
digit unit and display the units of print out. Following units
are used.
B = bytes
K = kilos
M = megas
G = gigas
T = teras
If unit is missing, and you have petabyte of RAM or swap, the num‐
ber is in terabytes and columns might not be aligned with header.
-c, --count count
Display the result count times. Requires the -s option.
-l, --lohi
Show detailed low and high memory statistics.
-o, --old
Display the output in old format, the only difference being this
option will disable the display of the "buffer adjusted" line.
-s, --seconds seconds
Continuously display the result delay seconds apart. You may
actually specify any floating point number for delay, usleep(3) is
used for microsecond resolution delay times.
--si Use power of 1000 not 1024.
-t, --total
Display a line showing the column totals.
--help Print help.
-V, --version
Display version information.
FILES
/proc/meminfo
memory information
SEE ALSO
ps(1), slabtop(1), top(1), vmstat(8).
AUTHORS
Written by Brian Edmonds.
REPORTING BUGS
Please send bug reports to ⟨procps@freelists.org⟩
procps-ng September 2011 FREE(1)